Bulk materials, such as coal, ores, grains, contaminated earth, and refuse, are frequently delivered by trucks to a marine transfer station where they are loaded onto barges and transported over a waterway to a destination and unloaded. Commonly, the materials are unloaded from the barges at the destination and processed, used, disposed of, or transferred to ships or rail cars at the waterside destination. Historically, it has been common practice, whenever possible, to locate ore-processing plants and mills, power generating stations, large bulk material handling facilities, waste disposal plants, and landfill areas on waterways so that bulk materials used, processed or transferred can be brought in by barges. Transport of bulk materials by barge is economical, free from wear and tear of the way over which the transport vehicles travel--unlike roads and rails, which require frequent maintenance and repair--and can use waterways that are not navigable by large ships.
A specific example of the effective use of barges is found in the handling of garbage in large areas of New York City. Trucks pick up garbage from residences and commercial establishments, deliver it to marine transfer terminals, and dump it through tipping holes in an elevated tipping floor into the hoppers of barges that are tied up in slips below the tipping holes. The loaded barges are towed to waterside landfill areas, where the garbage is unloaded and disposed of as landfill. Landfill areas that are reasonably accessible to the marine transfer terminals by barge are reaching capacity and are soon going to have to be closed. Suitably located new landfill areas are not likely to be available. There is, accordingly, an urgent need for a new way to transport garbage to distant landfill areas.